Best method of painting a faded hardtop?

Tech11

Tech11

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2007
Location
Greensboro
My black hardtop is faded, almost gray, and is looking rough. I want to paint it or do something to get it looking good again. Is painting what I want to do, or some sort of fiberglass restorerererrr? I've not ever armoralled the top because that just seemed to make things worse on my old jeeps with hard tops.

I was going to just hose it off, scrub it and spray bomb the top, but wanted to check and see if anyone had experience in doing it "the right way" or another way?

If spray bombing is the way what KIND of paint would be best to use?
 
Mine looks good to me, and I rattle canned it 4 years ago. $.99 @ Walmart, 6 cans if I remember.
 
Don't knwo about the Jeep tops, but I've rattle-can painted 3 4Runner fiberglass tops, always came out fine, did mine 4 years ago and still looks great.

Spend $4 for the clip on gun-handle top thingy that snaps over rattle cans so it feels like a "real" paint gun, prevents finger fatigue.
 
flat, semi flat,semi gloss?
 
I rattle canned an LJ top with semigloss. It turned out pretty good. I'll see if I can dig up a pic of it
 
Semi gloss. Flat will be really hard to clean.

Personally I'm a big fan of the Hammered spray paint, IMO it looks pretty cool on hard tops. Hides imperfections really well. However it takes some practice to get the texture right.
 
Clean it with trisodium phosphate and spray bomb it.

I prefer krylon over rustoleum.
 
Clean it good and spray it with semi-gloss rustoleum. Sprayed my top 2 years ago with 2 coats of black semi-gloss with a cheap harbor freight spray gun ($15). It sits in the sun and hasn't faded any.
 
shawn said:
Clean it with trisodium phosphate and spray bomb it.

I prefer krylon over rustoleum.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm gonna try the tsp.
 
The key is prep. make sure it is CLEAN and DRY. And do it in a non-windy area ;-).

Oh, and beer. Lots of it. But not until AFTER YOU'RE DONE ;)
 
Years ago I scotched brited mine down, inside and out, then sprayed it inside and out with black imron. It was like a cave on the inside with all the black, felt cooler in summer but probably really wasn't. Plus it didn't always show all those smudge prints being painted.
That rust-o-leum hammer paint might look cool on it, I've used it on stuff lately, seems fairly durable.
 
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